When I told a mentor that I was leaving, he said something that really stuck with me: you are starting to ask questions of yourself now that IBM cannot answer. I think the biggest one is, of course, can I do great things outside of IBM?

At Bloomberg I will be at the crossroads of financial services, media, technology and even politics — the very things that make New York City such an exciting place to live. The company has a very strong and unique culture (and concomitant zaniness too, no doubt) and it is going through an exciting moment — its founder’s return, a massive expansion of the employee population, expansion of the core terminals business into adjacent industries, the very exciting and deliberate expansion of the media and news business — that will make a compelling challenge for me as I build their Internal Communications capability. I aim to apply much of what I have learned from IBM to Bloomberg’s CEO’s quest for a more cohesive identity and narrative for Bloomberg employees.

So I am excited to test my mettle outside of IBM — and nervous too: IBM is like my home town and leaving is scary. Yet I feel very good about the work I’ve done with all of you and the network of relationships I have through IBM. Looking back at my time at IBM, the massively overwhelming feeling is that it has been time very, very meaningfully and well spent. And I have you, my fellow IBMers, to thank for this.

I am hopeful for IBM and all my IBM friends — the company is on the precipice of a set of changes that will be super interesting, challenging and mind-expanding. You can feel the engines revving up for a course-change. And I will be rooting for you to make it in grand style (and not just as a shareholder.)

Because I will always be an IBMer; I feel as though I have a tattoo on my heart in blue ink — it’s the eight bar logo, of course.